We'd just finished our year contract at Qingtian and our good friend Sumo was coming to visit from Australia. He arrived on the 13th of July and Jo's brother Pete on the 16th.

We began our whirlwind tour of China in Shanghai, only as being in China you have to book your train tickets at the departure city (this is a pain in the butt). Never the less we were trapped in Shanghai for 3 extra days, in short it's an expensive city with little to see. However we did luck in and watch the first Bledisloe.

From Shanghai we trained to Guilin and then on to Yangshuo. A very relaxing tourist friendly place. Enjoyed not having to act for a meal and being understood when speaking Chinese. Had a look about the little country town amidst all the limestone karsts.

Our next leg was Guilin to Kunming. A long train trip which lead to nothing much. People rave about Kunming but really we didn't see it as a place to stay. We also lucked out because flooding had made our planned trip west to Dali, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Lijiang impossible. So we fled to Chengdu.

This being our second trip to Chengdu we knew what we were in for and would say Chengdu is our favourite big city in China. We stayed again at Holly's Hostel (email hollyhostelcn@yahoo.com), a really cheap friendly place where they can book tickets and tours. We saw the pandas again and went to a Culture Show in town. The Culture Show was great. We also went out to Songpan to do a horse trek. The road out there is shocking and on arrival they decided Sumo was too big to go on a horse so we headed back the next morning. Landslides along the road on the return leg did nothing to improve our spirits. Needless to say after a 16 hour 300km bus ride we headed for the comfort of the Roo Bar the next morning. A trip to Chengdu would not be complete without a shocking hangover courtesy of Norm and Yanni at the Roo Bar.

Our next stop was Xi'an home of the Terracotta Soldiers. It's really a quite small city and although we wandered around for 2 days, the soldiers can really be done in one afternoon. You would not need to spend the night if you didn't want to.

Finally we arrived in Beijing. Also our second time there made navigating the city a lot easier. We again stayed at the Far East Youth Hostel. Dorm prices were cheaper in Summer than Winter. But entry to the sites were more expensive. The Great Wall was fantastic once again and although tourists were everywhere in the city at Jianshanling to Simatai a mighty tough walk there were few. 5 nights in Beijing saw us hit the turps pretty hard with a group of Aussies who'd just come from Mongolia. A great bunch of people and with large beer handles at 3RMB, or "how are ya's" according to Dave, warm weather. Honestly who could say no. We each saw the sun come up at different times. Trev twice!!

Then we ditched Pete in Shanghai, caught up with the Riley's and enjoyed the comfort of home for a night. And the three of us returned to Qingtian.

It feels great to be "home" albeit not for long. Travelling sure takes it out of you and just to be back where although we can't speak the lingo well, they are used to us and being creatures of habit they can guess what we are after.

All in all it was a good holiday, we tried to fit too much in too short a time. And while we could travel easier than at Spring Festival the tourist numbers were much higher in Summer. I'd recommend a trip to China in mid Oct - Nov, before it gets too cold and when the numbers are down. Not quite sure how Beijing will cope with the Olympics but they will definitely need to work on their tourism.